On packaging and product returns in online retail—Mailing boxes or sending signals?

Abstract

Considerable research on merchandise returns has looked at marketing elements of the sales process (e.g., product display) and how they influence returns. However, marketing and order fulfillment processes are temporally decoupled in remote purchase situations such as online retail. While both are intricate parts of the overall sales transaction, it is logical to believe that elements of order fulfillment may also be influential in explaining and controlling merchandise return. This study focuses on the packaging aspect of the order fulfillment process to explore how it may influence return incidents in online retail. Following insights from Signaling Theory, we propose that a product's package is a signal that communicates valuable information about the product to the buyer. We partner with an online retailer to study the outcome of a natural experiment involving product packaging during order fulfillment. Our results show that packaging influences returns, reducing them most significantly if the signaling is consistent across packaging levels.

Retail "Save the Sale" tactics: Consumer perceptions of in‐store logistics service recovery

“…For example, based on prior findings (Tokar et al 2020), shipping charges paired with the attribute of order fulfillment speed might play an important role when customers appraise stockout recovery services. Also, recent research has shown that product packaging might also contribute to customer assessments (Wallenburg et al 2021). Also, future research could further explore the nuanced aspects of delivery location convenience in a rural vs. an urban setting.…”

To talk or not?: An analysis of firm‐initiated social media communication's impact on firm value preservation during a massive disruption across multiple firms and industries

“…The receivers are the “outsiders who lack information about the organization in question but would like to receive this information” (Connelly et al., 2011). Operations management literature has examined receivers such as customers (Ba et al., 2020; Duan et al., 2021; Lins et al., 2020; Rao et al., 2018; Ray et al., 2011; Wallenburg et al., 2021), buying firms (Cheng et al., 2020; Mena et al., 2020), purchasing managers (Yan et al., 2020), and investors (Jiang et al., 2007; Kim & Wagner, 2020; Narasimhan et al., 2015). In our study, we consider investors as the receivers of the signals.…”

What is a fatal flaw? A guide for authors & reviewers

“…This issue includes four peer‐reviewed articles, one original manuscript by Wallenburg et al (2021) and three that come as a result the Special Topic Forum (STF) on Managing Extended Supply Chains, co‐edited by Thomas Choi, Sriram Narayanan, David Novak, Jan Olhager, Jiuh‐Biing Sheu, and Frank Wiengarten. This issue also includes an invited editorial by the STF editorial team (Choi et al, 2021).…”

“…Several recent JBL articles have examined order fulfillment processes involving digital capabilities (Ambra et al 2020; Ballot et al 2021; Ishfaq et al 2021), inventory management approaches (Muir et al 2019; Singh & Ardjmand, 2020), and consumer responses to order fulfillment options (Nguyen et al, 2019; Tokar et al 2020). In this issue, Wallenburg et al (2021) contribute to this growing stream of research by investigating a challenging issue for firms—product returns. They take a novel perspective by using signaling theory and utilizing a natural experiment to examine how product packaging can minimize purchasing returns.…”